Forum:Why doesn't the warden appear in DAI

Forums: Index > Game DiscussionWhy doesn't the warden appear in DAI

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WARNING: I know I'm overreacting, because I am venting. So, I am playing Inquisition and enjoying it (though not as much as DA:O) and characters are hyping up The Warden and Hawke in equal measure. I was enjoying all this attention to them and looking forward to finding out what my previous characters thought of the Inquisitor. Then I found out that you only get to meet Hawke in all his customized glory, while he glorifies his piddling accomplishment, and you only get one lousy letter (so far) from the Warden. FUCK YOU! I don't give a single shit about Hawke compared to the Warden. I feel like the devs are giving me a middle finger and saying "fuck you for not liking DA2 as much". I played trough DAO 6 times, and selected my favorite Warden (married AListair as Queen, did every sidequest) while I barely forced myself to finish DA2 Maker curse them for getting my hopes up. What do you guys think?

Storyline wise the warden didn't really fit into the storyline as well I imagine and there are other factors. Like the fact that the warden didn't have a voice so how do they make a physical appearance without addressing that? It would be awkward at best poorly done at worst. Plus the Warden could have ended up any number of different places depending on your play through so they would have needed to make half a dozen different scenes and quests to address going through the eluvian vs, being queen vs who knows what. And the payoff would be minimal at best. (User talk: Jokr)

Personally, I think that as much as I would have loved to see my Wardens appear again, it would be much, much more difficult to bring them back than it was to bring Hawke back. Hawke spoke and had a definably personality. They can bring that back easily enough, and, I think, did so. The Warden, on the other hand...they'd have to either retcon their speaking voice, which would probably upset some people, or get all, what, 36 voice actors back in to record their lines, including Robin Sachs, may he rest in peace. Then there's the matter of their personality. Much more so than Hawke, it's really a matter of opinion and headcanon what anyone's personal Warden acted like, and it would be tremendously difficult to bring that forward into a new game with them as an NPC without a lot of people being unhappy with it. Even as little as they did, I'm sure there are people already who think that what we got was too out of characters for THEIR beloved Wardens - "They wouldn't be so polite!", or "They wouldn't give a rat's ass about preventing the Calling!" People seem to be very possessive about their Wardens, which is why I think it's best Bioware not try and pry them away from them. But that's just my $0.02. Zeralith (talk) 02:47, November 24, 2014 (UTC)

I agree with you to a degree about conflicting headcanons. I know my own Warden has had a lot of revision over the last few days as information has come out. I suspect there are some people who are far quicker than I to throw up their hands and say "F**k this sh*t!" over it, not to mention people who will do the same over the particular quest Hawke appears in (I don't want to speak spoilers on a thread that isn't advertising spoilers). Mimi Sardinia (talk) 18:04, November 24, 2014 (UTC)

I was thinking along those lines, but I'm still really mad, and I probably always will be. Also, they could have just shown him/her killing a whole load of darkspawn and leave because "they have shit to do" and all that. Anything to show the warden still being a badass.

To the person who started this forum, I coudn't agree with you more. The fact that the warden is not in DAI and is only mentioned is a big disappointment for me. Let's just hope that Bioware adds story DLC that actually involves the Warden instead of just mentioning the Warden. Nyc1211 (talk) 04:29, November 24, 2014 (UTC)

There is also the issue that one of the possibilities is that The Warden dies defeating the archdemon. It really isn't possible for them to hang a plot point on the Warden when for a lot of people he/she is no longer alive --162.134.72.6 (talk) 14:26, November 24, 2014 (UTC)

You want the official reason or the truth? The official reason is that the Warden wouldn't fit, their story is over.... Bla Bla Bla. The real reason is that the Warden is much harder to implement then Hawke. Discounting the possibility that the Warden is dead, their identity can be one of seven completely different people, who can be of either sex, and of several different class combinations. Furthermore the Warden is voiceless and anything Bioware does in regards to giving them a voice would cause a ton of complaints. Hawke is always Hawke, class is relatively minor, the only major difference between people's world states is whether Hawke is male or female, not that big of an issue.--Swampshade (talk) 17:46, November 24, 2014 (UTC)

I can't read any of this because I have not reached that point in the game yet. But I think BioWare either should have included the Hero, or not at all. Meaning, no involvement from the Hero at all. There could still be references, but if the Hero doesn't show, then no letter, no words, no nothing. And in all honesty, they COULD have shown the Hero. They chose not to. The custom character option with Hawke proves this. We could have recreated our Hero in the same way! So the Hero better be in an expansion pack or something. Believe it! (talk) 20:04, November 24, 2014 (UTC)

More than anything, it's the voice issue. You'd need, at the very least, six voice actors to fill the role, assuming they lumped the human nobles, city elves, and both mages into one group(british), both dwarves into one group(american), with the dalish as outliers(irish), accounting for both genders. Thats money you have to pay the voice actors and data space on the disk. At the very least, five of those voice files are going to go unheard and it's entirely possible none of them will be used(in the case of a dead warden) in which case you've spent all that money and used up all that space for nothing. It's just cheaper and more practical to have the Warden off doing things without appearing on screen. 67.60.76.115 (talk) 08:02, November 25, 2014 (UTC)

Easily doable. Or they could have just reused the voiced lines from Origins. I'm not saying have the Hero speak mountains of script, just a few lines in all possible voices and with a few variations to account for personality type. Oh, and don't give me that about disc space, because the PC version has FOUR discs. Believe it! (talk) 15:48, November 25, 2014 (UTC)

Well, Warden is more or less a mute, while Hawke is voiced. Admittedly, I don't know what Bioware was thinking when they made the decision to have Warden be mute, or at least not voiced, but it might be a reason why, it'd be odd if all the Inquisitor did was say "So, how you doing", get no response then say "Yeah, I see how a rebellion would put a crimp in your wedding plans with Alistair/Anora". With Hawke it was all "Where's Merrill? I thought she'd be with you" "Oh she's back in the city because she's done enough for me and I don't want to take her away from her work" because both Inquisitor and Hawke are voiced. Of course, Warden can also end up dead if you don't take Morrigan's ritual. Also, Warden, Hawke and the Inquisitor all have their own journey's to follow, Warden is busy finding a way to stop the Calling, Hawke is on the run, and Inquisitor is trying to stop the world from ending. Warden's story does continue, we just aren't following Warden's story for now. Who knows, maybe one day, all three of those characters will meet face to face, it'd be fun to see Serah Cousland (My Female Human Noble Warden), Marian Hawke (Default Female Hawke) and Claire Trevelyan (My Female Human Inquisitor) fight alongside one another. --173.58.251.107 (talk) 08:40, November 25, 2014 (UTC)

While I’m in agreement that it would have been cool to see the Warden in some fashion, quest or such. I really think people need to get over the fact that the Warden may not appear in this game or future DA games. This is not Mass Effect its Dragon Age, which I’ve been told follows different hero’s perspectives throughout each new installment, and only references past heroes. Spoiler- As for Hawke showing up, admittedly this story gives either closure to his/her story or puts him/her in a position much like the Warden.--Mearn-Tahl (talk) 08:45, November 25, 2014 (UTC)

Yep, Mass Effect followed the story of Commander Shepard, and was that way for the foreseeable future until recent, basically everything had some sort of form to lead up to Shepard's story, Dragon Age made it very clear you weren't so invincible and important, the Warden can die in the first game, so if the story had just followed the Warden those who were unable/unwilling to do the Ritual of Morrigan would have found it impossible to move on to the next game. As for Hawke, well, mine is still alive as of Inquisition, Loghain finally got that redemption he wanted, after two games, he finally got it. (Alistair is still alive, just king w/Anora.) I would however, like to see Warden reunited with their love interest later on down the line, and same for Hawke. I just want a happy ending for Marian and Serah. --173.58.251.107 (talk) 08:58, November 25, 2014 (UTC)

In all fairness to Mass Effect, Shepard can die in Mass Effect 2 and 3 (but I will not digress into a tirade on 3's ending) The Warden is an extremely difficult character to resurrect, for all reasons stated above. Hawke can't die, so that one's a no-brainer. But DA: O was designed to be non-linear, and while that is awesome, it makes it very difficult in terms of sequels. I think Bioware addressed fan concerns over past characters and loose ends as best they could. They brought back beloved characters (Alistair, Leliana, Morrigan + OGB, Hawke (?)) and left out the unpopular ones (no Anders in DA: I) and they at least talked about the Warden, granted not as much as anyone would like. Also, don't discount the possibility of a Warden DLC. Not only would that very likely be ridiculously popular, but it eliminates criticism of having a Warden in the main game that players can't agree on. (Playing the DLC is optional, after all) I think this is a very possible course of action, one I would heartily support. Kattressa (talk) 14:44, November 25, 2014 (UTC)

I think people need to stop being obssesed with the Warden. I mean, really. It must be sad to live so stuck in the past. Meanwhile when I encountered the scene where the survivors of Haven sang the Inquisition's theme and bowed before the Herald of Andraste, the first thing I tought after recovering from the trance was: fuck the Warden, my Inquisitor now has power to help more people than my Warden ever could. (Joao gabrielp (talk) 22:21, November 25, 2014 (UTC))

I suppose it's like Revan's reappearance in SWTOR and the fact he was canonized as male at least before Lucas pushed away everything outside of the movies and TV. I guess some people just don't think ahead when they make stuff like this up. --Observer Supreme 22:39, November 25, 2014 (UTC)

Shepard can only die in a bad ending for Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3 Shepard dies in basically every ending. Dragon Age was about various stories and how they all connected, Mass Effect was about Shepard's story. I like the Warden, but Hawke personally was someone I could connect with owing to the voice and much more personalization, if the Warden had a voice actor and was given a player determined personality as opposed to just "pick response and watch reaction" I would have appreciated it more. --173.58.251.107 (talk) 23:09, November 25, 2014 (UTC)

I think that the Warden voice could be one of the VA who did his/her voice in battle (the experienced, agressive, mystical), it would be kind of cannon, but the harder part in the Warden showing up would be his/her personality. 187.22.147.27 (talk) 01:31, November 26, 2014 (UTC)

I have happily accepted that in the 10 years past my Warden has answered his calling and gone out fighting. Is anyone else okay with that? Darthmarticus (talk) 11:40, November 26, 2014 (UTC)

No, because you get a letter from the Warden in Inquisition that states where they have been and what they're doing, which is not answering to the Call. 75.163.104.69 (talk) 17:41, November 26, 2014 (UTC)